Well, after a fairly exhausting conference – particularly if one is presenting – and saying goodbye to my 18 yr old son who has decided that life in Melbourne is more to his liking than life in Brisbane, I discovered the best way to get over the grief and sadness and tiredness of his going is to get active. Get busy, get cleaning. It so happened that the hard rubbish collection was due over the weekend. We took the opportunity to get rid of old filing cabinets and the usual collection of mechanical detritus on our front lawn. Funny, to say the least, that curb burglars then mussed up our neatly piled up junk and took the bits they preferred, leaving the complete dross behind.
It was such a relief to get rid of old and unwanted things, even those which had served me so well, including the old colour printer and various other implements. We removed old broken things and even said good bye to a working cathode ray tv. We noticed that nearly every household was getting rid of their old tvs – it was sad to see the passing of an era, but, like us, I guess people, once they had tried the new tvs, couldn’t get rid of the old ones fast enough. Curb burglars were raiding the insides of them and leaving the cathode ray in the box – there’s probably gold in there. I said goodbye to an old, very good quality mini Sony stereo – the radio still worked, but various connections weren’t working so well anymore, and the CD player had ceased to work years ago; plus no-one plays tapes anymore… I hope the person who took it has a great time with it – the speakers are excellent.
We moved rooms around, set up a really lovely guest bedroom with the spare parts from Blake’s life – his bed, the desk, his storage units from Ikea, and rearranged Zoe’s room. She is thrilled with her new/old Ikea storage unit and the crappy desk which we will paint pink. Her room is fully set up now with the old computer (not connected to the internet) and she couldn’t be happier, even if her furniture is a mish mash of old cast offs, like castaways on a desert island, in her room.
And, to top it off, I made a lamb roast which the children wolfed down. They were lovely to me during my grief-stricken day. But I am better now. I spent money I don’t really have on things I don’t really need for the studio; – well, I DO really need them, but I could JUSTIFY NOT getting them on the basis of cost and cash flow. I bought an HP monitor – 20″, cheap as chips, and a desk chair (another one) for my own desk. And the children set up our Christmas trees, which has lightened my mood considerably. I’m so much happier about things now, even while I continue to mourn for my boy – I will miss him dreadfully. But he’s not dead, he will no doubt come and visit throughout the next year and I have finally paid off his school fees. That’s it – the last of them gone, and the chance now for me to get my credit card bills down to a dull roar. I’m planning on paying it off next year and reducing the limit from $15000 to $7500. I haven’t paid it down for years and I’m sick of paying the interest and living beyond my means. So that’s in hand, too. If I pay it off at $1000 per month or thereabouts, it will be no time before it’s completely gone and then the saving can begin in earnest. I want to own my own house!!!!
I'm no superwoman. 